Things That Kept Me Busy in April

April is usually one of the most pleasant month in Arizona, but it wasn't a case this year at least for first two weekends.  The first weekend happened to be the 4th avenue fair weekend in Tucson and it felt like in June.  One of the vendors at the fair told me that it was so hot that people weren't even stopping to see merchandise.  Only the hat shops and drink vendors had great sales during the fair.  The second weekend was insanely cold and it felt like back in February.  I volunteered at Spring Shearing Festival at Kathy's ranch in cold drizzle.  I was really looking forward to see shearing of animals but I was too cold and wet to stand in a rain.  I was spinning with a drop spindle in a garage where three other people were demonstrating wet felting, continuous strand weaving and needle felting until I could no longer feel my hands.  I spun rest of the day in a shop.  Call me a wimp, I don't care.  I can't stand cold weather.

I went back to the ranch on Monday to see the rest of the animals (who got too wet to be sheared on Saturday) getting sheared.  By the time I arrived, all alpacas and llamas had been sheared and they looked pretty strange with their new haircuts.

I saw angora goats and sheep sheared.  I didn't know the brown hair on sheep was actually sunburn and hair inside was a beautiful black color.  Another surprise was that how fibers from each sheep differ.  Just like our hair feel different from each other, wool from one sheep was much softer and finer than the fiber from her barn mate.  It was nice to see how fibers I spin were collected from animals.  It requires continuous hard work to raise animals for fiber and then process them (wash, color, make roving/batts, spin) for sale.

We had our Easter dinner at my brother-in-law's house and I was in charge of veggies and rolls.  I baked plain dinner rolls and herb-cheese dinner rolls on Easter morning.  I served asparagus with roasted garlic-lemon sauce and it was a hit.  All the veggies including sauteed broccoli and broccoli stem and cucumber salad were all gone and it was a happy surprise in a not-so-veggie loving crowd. 

I started volunteering for Humane Society last December and I've been enjoying working special events such as Cover Dog Photo Shoot and Doggie Fashion Show.  The largest fundraising event for Humaine Society is Puttin' On The Dog (P.O.D.) and it was on April 29 this year.  I helped baking dog biscuits before the event and kept filling coolers with drinks and ice for other volunteers during the event.  I just realized that I forgot to take pictures!  It was a fun event with lots of dogs, food from local restaurants, and animal lovers.  I met Maya, a therapy dog who is a pitbull.  We don't usually expect a pitbull to be a friendly visitation dog who visits nursing homes and children's hospitals.  Meeting someone like Maya reminds me that we're product of environment and even certain bleed of dogs commonly believed dangerous can have a nice temperament when they are raised in loving environment.  I'll be volunteering for P.O.D. every year.  Now I understand why this event is nominated in various local media's favorite charity event polls.